dual boot questions

[obieJon]

Hi,

Relative newb here...

I currently have two iMacs, one mid-2011 running the current OS, one mid-2008 running 10.6.8. I have legacy music recording hardware that requires me to keep a computer on 10.6.8. However, the old iMac does not really have enough processing power to run all that smoothly.

I'm looking at the following computer on Craigslist:

Apple Mac Pro 5,1 MC561LL/A
2 x Intel Xeon E5620 (2.4GHz)
40GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM (Bought from OWC)
ATI Radeon 5770
Apple RAID Card (Needs new battery)
2 x 1TB WD Black HDD
Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro
2 x 120GB Intel SSD
2 x eSATA bracket installed

Will this be able to run one drive on 10.6.8 and one on the current OS? How would I go about doing that?
Thanks for your time and expertise!

 

[MSastre]

The Mac pro 5,1 has four different drive bays, so can easily boot from four different OSs just by choosing which drive to boot from in System Preferences. I do it all the time with mine. You can also add drives to the PCIe slots if needed.

 

[BrianBaughn]

You can get a lot of info on that machine at Everymac.com. Pay particular attention to the graphics section. It'll run the current macOS (with certain limitations) and the upcoming Mojave...but will need a new GPU for that. What a new, "metal" capable card would do for booting in 10.6.8...I dunno.

 

[MSastre]

You should be able to boot in 10.6.8 ... I will test it later.

 

[skizzo]

if the 5,1 shipped with Lion (10.7) or newer OS I am under the impression you cannot install an earlier version of the OS that it came with from the factory. This means Snow Leopard and earlier OS versions will not be accepted to be installed on the 5,1 in those cases. Take that with a grain of salt, I may be mixing this up with you just wouldn't have the ability to download earlier version from the app store, but they aren't on there anymore anyways.

did a quick search and found this. you will want to read through it. it sounds like I am not totally off, but there are some hoops for you to jump through if it came from the factory with a later OS and you want an older one on there. Luckily since you have older Macs you should be able to utilize one of them to help with the process. If it is possible, you could simply clone that Snow Leopard drive and then physically install the clone in the 5,1. Or simply pull it from your current system and put it into the 5,1. Trying a fresh install on to the 5,1 might actually be the most difficult path from this read
http://www.alliemars.com/business/installing-osx-snow-leopard-on-a-2012-mac-pro-51-computer/

 

[h9826790]

You can get a lot of info on that machine at Everymac.com. Pay particular attention to the graphics section. It'll run the current macOS (with certain limitations) and the upcoming Mojave...but will need a new GPU for that. What a new, "metal" capable card would do for booting in 10.6.8...I dunno.

I don't know any GPU can work in both 10.6.8 and 10.14.

It's wither too old to 10.14 (no METAL support). Or too new for 10.6.8 (no driver support).

The 5770 should still able to display in 10.14 due to the EFI should still working, but don't expect any acceleration is available.
[doublepost=1529003569][/doublepost]

Hi,

Relative newb here...

I currently have two iMacs, one mid-2011 running the current OS, one mid-2008 running 10.6.8. I have legacy music recording hardware that requires me to keep a computer on 10.6.8. However, the old iMac does not really have enough processing power to run all that smoothly.

I'm looking at the following computer on Craigslist:

Apple Mac Pro 5,1 MC561LL/A
2 x Intel Xeon E5620 (2.4GHz)
40GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM (Bought from OWC)
ATI Radeon 5770
Apple RAID Card (Needs new battery)
2 x 1TB WD Black HDD
Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro
2 x 120GB Intel SSD
2 x eSATA bracket installed

Will this be able to run one drive on 10.6.8 and one on the current OS? How would I go about doing that?
Thanks for your time and expertise!

Yes, this config is bootable in 10.6.8.

 

[MSastre]

I've got a 7950 card in my 5,1 ... put in an old hard drive that had 10.6.8 on it, and was able to boot up from it. I have 10.13.5 on another drive in the Mac Pro.

 

[h9826790]

I've got a 7950 card in my 5,1 ... put in an old hard drive that had 10.6.8 on it, and was able to boot up from it. I have 10.13.5 on another drive in the Mac Pro.

The EFI should always work, but I will be surpriseed if the driver is there to let the card operate properly.

 

[kohlson]

Would you consider getting one MP and just configuring it for 10.6.8 to run you music recording environment on that? These things are pretty inexpensive - if you needed a second one to replace the 2011. Clean and simple, if a little bulky.